


Not the Faceless Masses

by yourlibrarian



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clones, Droids, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25865281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Some thoughts about clones, droids, and the choice of cannon fodder in Clone Wars.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Not the Faceless Masses

To me, this is a problem that starts with the original trilogy concept. Although the idea behind it was based on a combination of WWII war movies and space serials like Flash Gordon, the name of the verse is "Star Wars." And the prequel trilogy is definitely about war. However the original trilogy, written in the mid 70s and filmed just a little later, is more about rebellion. Aside from the attack on the Death Star with its dramatic bombing run in the final act, there are what we might dub skirmishes earlier, including the mid-point drama where the Millenium Falcon is allowed to escape the Death Star with the sacrifice of a few Imperial pilots.

I think the timing of the original trilogy is important. The Vietnam War had only just finished as the original trilogy was written. The various films which began to roll out, addressing the war and its aftermath in ways war had never been depicted before, were themselves still in the planning stages (including Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" which came out two years after A New Hope). For kids of Lucas' generation, WWII was a collection of heroic stories, and as distant from the reality as spaghetti westerns of the 1960s were from the settlement of the American west. War could still be seen as something that was played at.

This was far less true by the time the prequel trilogy came out in 1999. "Saving Private Ryan" drastically revised the depiction of WWII, just as various other movies had done over the years with the USA's involvement in Vietnam -- and it came out while "The Phantom Menace" was in production. But the prequels, drafted in 1993, focused on the rise and fall of a particular man and not on the various forces that combined to lead the galaxy to a widespread costly war. These factors were included, to be sure, but only in a very surface manner. While they've been revisited in Clone Wars, this has never been delved deeply into on the series.

The problem with the prequel trilogy, and Clone Wars' focus on a massive war, is that wars are all about death. Yet Star Wars has always been designed as family entertainment, which means making all that war and death as bloodless and background as possible. (In fact, in several series of the LEGO Star Wars stories, there are extra efforts made to suggest no one is dying, such as having Imperial pilots flail about in space as if waiting to be picked up, when the destruction of their ships and the vacuum of space would have ensured none of them lived). No doubt this was the reason that droids and clones were chosen as the foot soldiers for both sides, directed by handfuls of Jedi or Sith who are the people we are meant to actually care about.

### Who needs convincing?

The problem is that droids already existed as a positive force in the original trilogy (and, indeed, are the only characters who exist in every film in the Skywalker saga). Plus, the fact that Clones are clones does not mean that they cease to be human beings and individuals. So by the time we come to S4 and S5 where we get arcs that focus on the humanity of clones and the heroics of droids, respectively, the truth of both these things has already long been apparent, Hanging a lantern on it just serves to highlight how poorly Clone Wars has handled the deeper ethical issues involved. (I am going to bypass discussion of the only other cohesive group of beings who we see fight for the Republic more than once, since they're key to the victory of Mon Cala -- the Gungans.)

Droids have, from the earliest scenes in Star Wars, been designed as comic relief and, I would argue, lower stakes heroes who can be injured and taken apart and put back together with little harm done. Clone Wars certainly continued this with the B1 droids, their amusing vocal tic of "Roger Roger," and their commentary on their inevitable destruction. It was hard to feel sorry for them as they were destroyed and smashed with impunity because that very humor signaled that we shouldn't take them too seriously.

But we do take quite a few droids seriously in the Star Wars verse, notably R2 who has been heroic from his first appearance on camera, and to whom Anakin is deeply devoted throughout Clone Wars, despite being criticized for favoring "only a droid." Star Wars Rebels later introduces more heroic droids as do all the rest of the movies. As a result, the B1s seem less menacing and more like puppies kicked often (whereas the speechless B2s and droidekas seem more efficiently weapon-like). A reprogrammed B1 even became the droid comic relief (and nanny!) in the Freemaker Adventures, amusingly discussing how many times Jedi had cut him to pieces.

The mounting deaths of the Clones also becomes hard to ignore. This particularly stood out to me in "Legacy of Terror" where Luminara is rescued -- but at the cost of nearly all the Clones who set out with their Jedi leaders to do so. Only two episodes later, yet another Jedi is captured who must be rescued. All these deaths to save one person doesn't seem like a good trade-off.

Yet in the very first episode of Clone Wars, it's explicitly stated by the king of Toydaria that he's heard a Jedi is worth 100 droids. After seeing Yoda in action he corrects that to say 1000. Yet what this really means is that a Jedi is worth 1000 Clones in their army, not just because they're leaders and, by definition, have more experience than the young clones, but because of their superior abilities. Although Rex is a captain, one doubts that any Clone will become a general, even though a freshly minted padawan can be a commander. 

This implicit belief guides all the actions that follow in the series, where Clone deaths are passed off, but dead Jedi are honored -- at least until we get to S5's opening episode, "Revival." In it Adi Gallia, a Jedi featured several times before, dies with no obvious funeral or memorial and no mention post-mission. This could have been intentional, to suggest the effects of the war on Jedi ethics and practices and the increasing cheapening of life. In the final episode of S5 we do see a funeral for Jedi with no reference to all the others who died in the bombing. However, one could handwave this by assuming that the families of those dead had their own services whereas this one was for the extended family of fellow Jedi. 

That same season in "The Gathering", it is stated that the loss of Jedi has made the training and advancement of Jedi children even more important. And in that same arc it is Hondo who says he does not like to send children into battle. Ahsoka dismisses this, given his earlier assault on their ship. Yet I take his statement at face value. The children were not, in fact, harmed during the ship assault, and he does reluctantly assist them. These interactions beg the question about what sort of life these children are being raised into when a pirate sees the path they're on as unethical.

### Where Was the Reaction?

My biggest issue with the first five seasons of Clone Wars though was the expected fallout from the General Krell storyline --which didn't happen. As Season 4 went on and then 5 continued with just one throwaway line (in "Sabotage", where people seem shocked that a Jedi could turn traitor, despite two having done so), the missed opportunities grew. It seemed inconceivable that Krell's actions had not created a major shockwave in the Jedi Council. The resulting hand wringing, self-examination, and concern about their practices should have preceded Bariss' betrayal and, in fact, served as the basis for storylines for the rest of that season. That apparently _nothing_ was done by the Council -- which is all one can gather from the absence of any further mention -- makes the Council of Neutral Systems seem entirely reasonable. Underpinning the ugliness of that episode was Krell's dismissiveness about Clones, considering them as no better or different than the machines they were fighting. In fact, given that Krell wanted to defect to the Separatists, he probably saw them as worse.

However this was not from any horror at the idea of millions of Clones being grown and trained as tools of the Republic, something which was glossed over in Attack of the Clones. Instead, Krell's callousness and brutality were so over the top that there was little reason to believe he was just a bad commander as opposed to the turncoat he turned out to be. The writers seemed satisfied with simply putting across the point that Clones were human beings, and individuals, and not merely tools to be used as needed the way that the droids were on the other side. 

The idea that the Clones were people and individuals though, had already been well established in the first few seasons in a number of episodes. For example, individuals might want to opt out of their draft. We met one in S2's "The Deserter" where a clone went AWOL and became a husband and father. We get to meet a team of rookies only 5 episodes into the series. We get to know Rex, Cody, Five and others along the way. And the training of Clones is addressed in the S3 opener "Clone Cadets" 

So what Krell's arc really revealed was the rot in the Republic and the questionable idea of the Jedi as commanders. Or for that matter, how far the Clones should go in sticking to their training and seeing _themselves_ as selflessly dedicated to the Republic in their role as soldiers. For an episode that ended with a group challenging the existing system, one can't imagine that the Jedi leadership would want to see a repeat of such mutiny, however justified it proved to be with Krell. What would they have done had Krell simply been a commander unconcerned with high casualties? While some Clones clearly admired the Jedi, and most of them seemed to lead from the front, undertaking the same risks as their troops, surely not every individual trained as a peacekeeper automatically made a good strategist or empathetic commander. The episode as a whole raised excellent questions, but following those threads to their conclusions seemed to have been pulled back from for the sake of keeping things simple for young viewers. But the repercussions are too troubling to handwave.

This idea of individuality among foot soldiers was touched on again in the S5 arc with the droid infiltration unit. In it, Colonel Gascon and WAC have a conversation about how droid programming and military training are very similar things. In the 4 episode arc, WAC makes clear that direct orders and programming do not, in fact, make a droid incapable of independent decision making. Droids also mourned the loss of comrades, were determined not to leave any behind, stayed loyal to the Republic, and undertook potentially high risk tasks that nearly killed them. 

In Star Wars Rebels, the Imperial droid AP-5 changes sides after complaining that he is both mistreated and his skills are denigrated. Once his restraining bolt is removed he mutinies and is nearly destroyed while helping the Rebels complete their mission. It would not be unexpected to find that AP-5 becomes a deserter himself at some point. AP-5 and other droids have shown that they are capable of independent personalities. They are also capable of despair and hope. In Clone Wars S4, droids used for target practice by Death Watch in "A Friend in Need" beg R2D2 to repair them. When he does, they assist him and Ahsoka in their escape, even though the droids are destroyed in the process.

As a result, making the foot soldiers "less than human" works imperfectly to erase the costs of the war, of bad decision making, and the valuing of some lives over others in the Star Wars verse. Instead it merely allows the creator and writers to gloss over levels of privilege and poverty throughout worlds in the verse by having a ready-made underclass of soldiers whose sole function is to fight and die for their respective overlords. The fact that these foot soldiers on either side look on the surface as if they were homogenous programmed groups, built to follow orders, allows the verse to sidestep the messiness of who tends to get drafted in wars and the unequal valuing of life. The Force Awakens, at least, ends up addressing this pretty directly in the person of Finn early on in its story, as well as the chaos and fear that is a part of that existence.

Instead, Clone Wars suggests that the major reason for a breeding program of soldiers is that this allowed the Senate -- through the Jedi -- to conduct a war that was unlikely to be delayed or hindered by protests over the cost of that war in lives. Clones have no families, no communities, no cultures or worlds to intervene. A Republic-wide draft would surely have led to many objections across worlds, even before the high casualty rates became obvious (even higher, one would assume, for regular people trained at maturity to fight). And for viewers, it's a lot easier to miss that casualty rate when all the bodies look and sound the same.


End file.
